2006 Eldon D. Foote Lecture in International Business

On the 2006 Foote Lecturer:Mr. Howard Balloch is President of The Balloch Group, a private investment banking firm based in Beijing. He served as Canada’s Ambassador to China between early 1996 and August 2001. He also served as Ambassador to Mongolia and to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. His 25 year governmental career included positions as Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet for National Unity up through the 1995 Quebec Referendum, several years as Assistant Deputy Minister for Asia and the Prime Minister’s Personal Representative to APEC, Head of the Policy Planning Staff during both the Gulf War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and during the late 1980s as Director of North Asia. He also served for nine years on the Board of Directors of the Asia Pacific Foundation and now serves on a number of corporate boards as well as being Vice Chairman of the Canada China Business Council and Adjunct Professor of international business at the University of British Columbia. He received his BA and MA from McGill University, and continued his graduate studies at the University of Toronto and at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques in Paris.

Lecture Abstract:

The underlying forces behind China’s growth and the trends that are likely to drive economic and social change in China over the next quarter century are such that Chinese growth, while not necessarily smooth, will likely remain substantially above global averages. The challenge that China faces in meeting its resource needs will affect not only the pattern of its own growth, but global resource markets, technological innovation and international politics. How other countries respond to a China increasingly dependent on imported resources may well be one of the most important determinants of whether or not China remains on a course convergent with western democracies. These trends and issues have profound and long-term implications for the Canadian and international business community and should not be ignored in current corporate strategic planning.